E3 2011: Avalanches in SSX

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Deadly slopes.

By Charles Onyett

SSX is a franchise that's always been about impossible snowboarding, and the new version is most definitely the biggest yet. EA's reboot of the franchise covers many major mountain ranges around the world, and lets you navigate around the globe using a Google Earth-like interface. When you've decided on a location, be it in Antarctica or Japan, you can then zoom in and pick the slope to drop in on. Each slope is meant to be open, meaning you're not restricted to a small, narrow path, and there are multiple ways to get to the bottom.

Those who like to pull off crazy tricks will still find a Tricky meter in the game that builds as successive moves are pulled off. Though the mountains are modeled on real ranges, they're not especially realistic, with slopes and ramps build all over, and even the Great Wall of China broken into chunks and distributed across one particular hill. What you won't find are giant colored rails sticking out all over the place, as EA wants you to instead be able to grind on anything natural with an edge.

To pull off tricks you'll get familiar mechanics, including the ability to pre-wind jumps for more air and tighter spins, as well as turbo and a variety of tricks to pull off that get crazier once the Tricky meter is full. When you get tired of that you can try racing too, or test out the deadly descents mode.

There'll be nine of these challenges total in the game, which drop you at the pinnacle of a mountain and task you simply with surviving the way down. On your journey the camera switches away from the traditional behind-the-shoulder view and instead presents it from an almost top down perspective as if it were being shot from a hovering helicopter. This allows you to see more of the slope above you, which is important because you'll be outrunning avalanches.

With every turn you make in this mode you'll run the risk of disturbing critical points on the mountainside. With more force, more snow will be dislodged, until eventually it's a huge mass of flakes tumbling down the hill that can kill you if you're not fast enough. Considering how many hills there are in the game to race and trick on combined with this mode and unlockable gear for all the riders, it seems like there'll be a crazy amount of content included in SSX.